Five European Kitchens Expose Plywood as the Primary Finish

Across five recent kitchens in Europe, architects are using plywood not as a hidden structural layer but as the primary exposed finish, rejecting lacquer and veneer in favor of visible grain and layered edges. The projects range from a 1936 modernist flat in Fribourg, Switzerland, by Noue Studio, where birch plywood joinery replaces a sealed partition and functions as the wall itself, to a 1969 Paris apartment by Atelier Apara using okoumé plywood—typically for boatbuilding—against stainless steel and checkerboard tile. In Cambre, Galicia, Sinaldaba clad an entire kitchen wall in pale plywood to soften concrete ceilings and exposed blockwork within a limited budget. Altstadt built a freestanding plywood volume framed in red steel inside a hempcrete-insulated Brussels apartment, concealing technical shafts. Not A Studio applied plywood sparingly as a grounding panel in a 36-square-meter Barcelona flat, paired with a METOD kitchen framework and custom steel countertop. All five projects leave the plywood's layered edge exposed, treating it as a deliberate design detail rather than a flaw. The material's range is evident: birch reads pale and Scandinavian, while okoumé reads dark and nautical. Plywood's appeal in 2026 is less about cost—though budget constraints shaped the Cecebre House—and more about a preference for materials that reveal their construction, countering the seamless surfaces perfected over the last two decades.